Materials Shopping – Taiwan

Craft Materials Shopping @ Taiwan

Picture 1 of 8 (Click arrow for more pictures)

Finally, I have the fabrics unpacked from my luggage, arranged and photographed. It has been 2 months since my shopping and vacation trip to Taiwan. I touched down at Taiwan with 20kg (44 lbs) check-in luggage and returned with 60kg (132 lbs). Out of the 40kg extra, majority of them are the craft materials I bought there, food came next followed by books and souvenirs.

Due to Taiwan’s geographical location and with the influential of Japanese culture, you may find that their craft style are towards kawaii. If you have plans to visit Taiwan, do spare a day or 2 to shop for some craft materials. Besides, Taiwan is also famous for it’s food, not sure which shop to eat? Easy, get into the shops with the most customers and you won’t be wrong.

The following are the places I would like to share with you where I bought my craft materials and books from.

Yong Le Market (永樂市場) – Map
The biggest textile market in Taipei, located at DiHua Street (迪化街), Taipei. It is a real fabric shopping heaven with nearly thousand of fabric shops in this area!!! Most shops closed on Sunday.

You will find lots of shops selling all kinds of fabrics and sewing notions, from quilting cotton, canvas, to upholstery and pile fabrics at 1st floor and 2nd floor of the market and the shops surrounding it. If you shop from door to door, you would need to spend at least 2 days here. Due to limited time allowed, I managed to do a quick shopping in a few shops within 1 day.

Look at the fabrics inside the market, note that this is only half the aisle along side and there are a few aisle in each floor. It is like a maze inside the market, all you got to see are fabrics everywhere. I lost myself in the market and can’t find the right entrance I came in when I am about to leave. If I wasn’t considering about the maximum weight I can carry for my check-in luggage and the maximum quantity I can hand-carry back without customs taxes and duties, I could have bought tons of them back…. how I wish I live next to this lovely market.

Besides those commonly found fabrics, there are also some shops selling pile fabrics, from microfiber and fleece, to faux leather and faux fur. You are to be amazed by the varieties of fabrics found here. Again, if it wasn’t the weight, I could have brought back a lot.

In fact, I went to this area twice, in the morning, my daughter and I went back to the hotel with 2 full bags of fabrics which my daughter helped to carry a lighter one. We took a brief lunch and went to Bear Mama (the second last photo from the bottom) for the second trip to this area. After buying a big bag of yarns (not in the photos above) and some purse accessories from Bear Mama,we walked back to the market and shop again.

Bear Mama (小熊媽媽DIY) – also available Online, in Chinese only
Many of you wonder where I bought my purse making notion, like frame, handles, locks, metal zippers with cute pull etc…. This is one of the shops I bought some of them from. The shop is just a walking distance from Yong Le Market.

Eslite (誠品) bookstore
After a long day of shopping and lugging a few bags of nice fabrics back to the hotel, my daughter and I decided to spend a quite and relax evening at a book store off Zhong Xiao East Road (忠孝東路) near our hotel.

As usual, the first place I would go to is the craft book section. Most of the craft books are in Chinese and Japanese, and the choices are simply profusion. I bought a few craft books for inspirations and hope to share some of the ideas one day.

It sure is cheaper, for example, see those in color combo fabrics which is similar but thicker than quilting weight (good for sewing bags and purses), it is about $5-$6/yard if my memory didn’t get me wrong.

Wow, I wished I lived closer to Taiwan to be able to get these items. You selected some very nice colour and pattern combinations! Do you have any advice as to what types of patterns and colours go well together? Thanks.

Oh your post brings back wonderful Memories!! 2 years ago, my first trip to China I visited my Daughter and Son~In~law in there New Home and Country, on the Island on Xiamen, China. We could see Taiwan from the shore, but I did visit the Fabric Market on Xiamen twice! I was in Heaven, and like you brought back gorgeous Fabrics!! I use them sparingly because I am afraid to use them all, silly isn’t it. I am going back now to visit them again in April, this time another New Home, Hungzhou. My fingers are crossed there will be another Fabric Market close. It is so nice to share with someone else the excitement I felt while shopping in China, even though Taiwan is a different Country?, the shops look the same!! I follow you by email, the next time I make something with some of my fabrics I brought back I’ll let you know!! Right now I am thinking of cutting into some of this Rich Red Velvet I brought back for a Valentine Pillow.

This is lovely, isn’t it!!! I am sure there will be many fabric shops in Hungzhou though I never been there, happy shopping!!!
Next time, I will bring along a trolley bag when I go for fabric shopping. Lugging the heavy fabrics during the shopping is really tiring… lol

Oh boy, that is so awesome you can get all these lovely fabrics and accessories, I wish we have store like that in Malaysia. x(
Even though it’s not like that I could spend that much on buying them lol

I have searched for their English version but to no avail. May be you can try translate.google.com, copy and paste the link into the box and translate, but the translation could be sucked to read and imagine, as always. Sorry if this can’t help much. I will try to find those in English next time.

Oh my gosh! I love this! I lived in Taiwan for about a year and a half and loved every minute of it. Seeing things like this make me so nostalgic and I cannot wait to go back as a tourist. I always bring home way too many treasures though!

Hi,
I found your website by google searching.
Last year I went Taiwan and spend 4 days for traveling and shopping in Taipei.
I visited patchwork garden shop also. It’s very nice shop and not difficult to go this shop.
You can go by MRT. You have to drop at CKS Memorial Hall Station 3 and exit on Gu Tingzhan 6.
(You can find by web site : http://www.patchworkgarden.com.tw)

I bought many quilting books at Taipei Main Station (underground) It’s very cheap. You can get much discuout 20-25%. and there are many kind of handicraft books also.

I love Taiwan very much and plan to go on this November or December comming.

Thank you for sharing such an informative post. I’ll be going to Taiwab at the end of this year and I’m thinking of getting those needle felting crafts equipment for her as I heard it’s very cheap to be purchased from Taiwan. Do you know where, or which shop specifically, I can buy these items at a cheap price? Thank you very much.

Good to read lovely comments about Taiwan. I live in Kaohsiung City. I’m new into crafting and sewing and I’m glad to know that Taipei got a whole city of fabrics! Haven’t seen a big fabric store here in the South (got no time to go around), but I have seen lovely prints and designs along busy streets. We are planning to go Taipei on Chinese New Year and will visit those stores you mentioned in your post!

I chance upon your website while googling for fabric shopping in Taipei. I thank you for your very detailed information. I & hubby visited Taipei in mid January & visiting Yong Le Market and Bear Mama were top of my list. Finding these shops was not difficult as we stayed around the area. I went to Yong Le market TWICE & each time, ended with bags of fabric. I was so amazed & overhelmed by the variety of fabrics that I forgot completely to take pictures of the market! I am so happy with the fabrics I bought but now need to find space to store them (I have more fabrics than I am able to sew!). Definitely will make another visit to Taipei. Thanks again.

What a great post! I am going to Taiwan in November and these suggestions are perfect! I can’t wait! Can you also recommend your hotel please? Thanks so much for these recommendations, I can’t wait to check them out in person!

Comments are moderated, and will not appear on this weblog until the editor has approved them.
Please no link dropping, no keywords or domains as names; do not spam, and do not advertise!
If you want a pic to show with your comment, go get a gravatar!